Puratos opens £1.27M bakery innovation centre

11-Sep-2016 - Last updated on 12-Sep-2016 at 13:55 GMT

Bakery ingredients supplier Puratos has opened a new £1.27M innovation centre

Bakery ingredients firm Puratos has opened a new £1.27M (€1.5M) world class innovation centre in Oxfordshire.

The bakery, patisserie and chocolate ingredients supplier opened the centre at its Fringford Mill site near Bicester on Friday September 12.

Puratos UK said the new Industrial Bakery Competence Centre would focus on researching bakery industrial processes, developing industrial applications and training new and existing customers.

The new centre will complement Puratos’ existing patisserie and chocolate innovation capabilities by helping customers cut product development time, thanks to the easy testing of new ingredients and recipes, it claimed.

Double its market share

Puratos UK md Julian Lewis said opening the new centre was a key step in the firm’s commitment to investing in customers’ success and reaching its target of doubling market share within the next five years.

“We have spent many months collaborating closely with our key industrial partners, who recognise our strong technology expertise, innovation capabilities and outstanding product quality,” said Lewis.

“The detailed design of the facility and its equipment has been guided by these relationships, ensuring our newest investment closely matches their large-scale plants as well as meeting their future needs,” said Lewis.

“By expanding our industrial development capabilities at Fringford, it will enable us to better help our customers to enhance their businesses through research, development, training and inspiration.

‘Research, development, training and inspiration’

“Driven by our strong expertise and commitment to technological innovation, Puratos UK is now ready for the latest challenges facing our industry.”

Meanwhile, the new centre was part of Puratos’ global investment in its network of 58 innovation centres worldwide. These businesses recently opened a €15M ‘Inspirience’ centre in Brussels focused on product innovation.

The Puratos Group offers products and raw materials for the bakery, patisserie and chocolate sectors in more than 100 countries worldwide. Its customers included: artisan bakers, industry manufacturers, retailers and foodservice clients.